A blog for the laid-back gardener

Gardening tips, nature-inspired interiors and easy floristry.

Rivendell Garden in Amersham - a beautiful garden in springtime, open as part of the National Gardens Scheme. Featuring daffodils, hellebores and carefully selected spring beauties the garden layers early season impact above the emerging beauties of summer.

Forsythia seems to split opinion. Some people find sunshine yellow difficult to incorporate in a garden and I admit to having a love-hate relationship with it. Spring is when I'm most likely to love yellow and my Forsythia has not disappointed this year. Yellow and optimistic Forsythia blossom [...]

This week I have been gardening in perma-cloud but plenty of summer colour is promised in my dahlias, cannas, bananas and roses. Daphne mezereum is scenting the air and I welcomed some Trilliums into the garden.

I’ve got a renewed attraction to daffodils, or to use their latin name - narcissi. It’s like cupid’s bow has hit me and inflamed my narcissus desire. That’s my love of daffodils, you understand, not myself. Read on to find out why.

My gardening week - six on saturday - 07.04.18 This week I was thankful for forsythia, showing daffodils, admiring Camellia and Pleione, making homes for more alpines and bringing an old cold frame into service.

Rock chicks of the mountains, a traditional stone trough gives alpines their perfect show stage. Aged with moss and lichen, stone can be hard to beat aesthetically but they are expensive. You can create an artificial stone trough cheaply by covering an old sink in a cement-based hypertufa mix. Here's how.

My gardening week - six on saturday - 31.03.18 This week I planted up a Gloriosa lily, took difficult decisions regarding my veg patch and delighted in a new Elephant's Ear shoot. I also admired the succulent roof on a bird table, planted some mini iris seeds and celebrated victory over fungus gnats.

Easter is one of my favourite times of year for flower arranging. The flowers available are more limited than in the summer but what is there is pretty, diminutive and symbolic of spring. Tea cup arrangements that use small amounts of flower and foliage are a great idea at this time of year as you're unlikely to want to denude your garden too much in search of floristry material

My gardening week - six on saturday - 24.03.18 This week I decided to start planning a woodland path, pruned a wayward climbing rose, admired an Anemone, potted up dahlia tuburs, learned about an inspirational alpine gardener and decided on utilities for my new greenhouse.

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